Gear & Gadgets —

Google hopes to ring up mobile phone content sales

The ringtone and mobile gaming business is a thriving one, and Google wants to …

As part of its continued foray into the mobile space, Google plans to launch a new service that will help users find and purchase mobile content such as ringtones and games.

Under the mobile content search system, users would be able to search for a particular ringtone—for example, Eric Bangeman might want Sanjaya Malakar's rendition of "Bathwater" as his ringtone. Google would then return a list of links that would let them purchase the ringtone directly from those providers and get the ringtone immediately. The same would apply for games, backgrounds, applications, and anything else mobile customers use on their phones. According to the Wall Street Journal's sources, the service has supposedly experienced some setbacks, and no launch date has been set yet as the search giant moves forward with its plans.

Google's service would, of course, allow users to bypass the sometimes-restrictive systems offered by the various cell carriers for purchasing mobile content, which is sure to go over like a lead balloon with the carriers once their (very profitable) sales model is threatened. But it would also open up opportunities for new mobile content providers to set up shop and spark an even more thriving mobile economy.

Google is not forgetting to make sure it gets paid via this entire scheme, either. The company eventually plans to charge providers for higher placement in the search results, according to the Journal. This would work in the same way as Google's current "Sponsored Links" and would guarantee eyeballs fall first on the products of the highest bidder. Google also recently began beta-testing a mobile version of its AdSense system with select users, enabling them to offer mobile-formatted, targeted Google ads on their mobile web sites.

With all of these plans in place, the company is attempting to ensure it doesn't fall behind as mobile technology moves ahead. Google already has fairly advanced versions of Google Maps and mapped search results available for the iPhone and BlackBerry, with similar mapped results apparently planned out for even the most simple of cell phones. But the next step past porting web content to the phone is offering content for the phone, and Google hopes that one day, its collection of services will become as ubiquitous in the mobile space as they are on the computer.

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui